The Book At Bedtime, the serialized audiobook slot on BBC Radio 4, last week featured a collection of five short stories called A Night With A Vampire 2. From November 29th to December 3rd, 2011 (BBC R4 22:45-23:00) five 14 minute (abridged) stories were read by David Tennant. Now the set is available via |TORRENT| for download at RadioArchive.cc.

As you might guess from the title, these are all vampire stories.

My pick of the lot is Richard Matheson’s Drink My Blood (aka Drink My Red Blood… aka Blood Son) which was Matheson’s seventh published short story. I find it to be extremely creepy. Parents will probably find it doubly so. Also good is Fritz Leiber’s Girl With The Hungry Eyes which is a bit less sanguineous and a bit more sexual.

The Lady Of The House Of Love by Angela Carter – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]“This wonderful retake on the Sleeping Beauty story first appeared in Carter’s 1979 volume “The Bloody Chamber“. A virginal English soldier, travelling through Romania by bicycle, finds himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity and virginity have a curious effect on her…”

The Girl With The Hungry Eyes by Fritz Lieber – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]“This 1949 story has exerted it’s grip on many an imagination and has been filmed several times. It concentrates on the magnetic power of the Vampire and – in this case – the utterly captivating and inescapable lure of a Vampiress cum glamour model.”

Bewitched by Edith Wharton – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]Saul still goes out to see his previous girlfriend…even though she died years ago.

Drink My Blood by Richard Matheson – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]A young schoolboy whose only ambition in life is to become a vampire.
First published in Imagination, April 1951 (as Drink My Red Blood).

A Lot Of Mince Pies by Robert Swindells – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]A group of carol singers visit the same cottage every year.